scholarly journals Shaping our Taxonomic Legacy through Openly Sharing Primary Biodiversity Data in Taxonomic Revisions

Author(s):  
Torsten Dikow

Taxonomy has a long tradition of describing earth’s biodiversity. For the past 20 years or so, taxonomic revisions have become available in PDF format, which is regarded by most practicing taxonomists to be a good means of digital dissemination. However, a PDF document is nothing more than a text document that can be transferred easily for viewing among researchers and computer platforms. In today’s world, traditional taxonomic techniques need to be met with novel tools to make data dissemination a reality, make species hypotheses more robust, and open the field up to rigorous scientific testing. Here, I argue that high-quality taxonomic output is not just the publication of detailed species descriptions and re-descriptions, precise taxon delimitations, easy-to-use identification keys, and comprehensively undertaken and illustrated revisions. Rather, in addition high-quality taxonomic output embraces digital workflows and data standards to disseminate captured and published data in structured, machine-readable formats to data repositories so as to make all data openly accessible. Imagine that a taxonomist today has every original description and every subsequent re-description of a species at her/his fingertips online, has every specimen photograph produced by a previous reviser digitally available in the original resolution, and can take advantage of existing, openly accessible data and resources produced by peers in digital format in the past. When we as taxonomists provide such findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR) data, the future of biodiversity discovery will accelerate and our own taxonomic legacy will be enhanced. Cybertaxonomic tools provide methods to accomplish this goal and their use and implementation is here summarized in the context of revisionary taxonomy from the standpoint of a publishing taxonomist. While many of the tools have been around for some time now, very few taxonomists embrace and utilize these tools in their publications. This presentation will provide information on what kind of data can and should be openly shared (e.g., specimen occurrence data, digital images, names, descriptions, authors) and outline best practices utilizing globally unique identifiers for specimens and data. Data standards and the best-suited data repositories such as the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and Zenodo, with its Biodiversity Literature Repository, and the Plazi TreatmentBank, an emerging species portal, are discussed to illustrate retrospective and prospective data capture of taxonomic revisions.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natália Botica

Archaeology produces large quantities of data, much of it already in a born-digital format. The preservation of these data is vital, as they result from unrepeatable actions, and access to and sharing of these data are the engine of research activities and knowledge development. The creation of archaeological data repositories, in addition to safeguarding data, is a valuable step in supporting research, but it requires a series of work processes, namely data standardisation and use of common nomenclatures, so published data are findable and reusable. The creation of an archaeological data repository for Portugal is a fundamental requirement. It would allow the safeguarding of data resulting from archaeological fieldwork, along with those resulting from research, making them findable, accessible and liable to be used in future research or even to be re-analysed using new technologies and tools. This article presents the evolution of the digitisation of archaeological information in Portugal, the responsibilities for its production and safeguarding, as well as the steps to be followed for its availability in a data repository.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Marcelo Worsley ◽  
Roberto Martinez-Maldonado ◽  
Cynthia D'Angelo

Multimodal learning analytics (MMLA) has increasingly been a topic of discussion within the learning analytics community. The Society of Learning Analytics Research is home to the CrossMMLA Special Interest Group and regularly hosts workshops on MMLA during the Learning Analytics Summer Institute (LASI). In this paper, we articulate a set of 12 commitments that we believe are critical for creating effective MMLA innovations. Moreover, as MMLA grows in use, it is important to articulate a set of core commitments that can help guide both MMLA researchers and the broader learning analytics community. The commitments that we describe are deeply rooted in the origins of MMLA and also reflect the ways that MMLA has evolved over the past 10 years. We organize the 12 commitments in terms of (i) data collection, (ii) analysis and inference, and (iii) feedback and data dissemination and argue why these commitments are important for conducting ethical, high-quality MMLA research. Furthermore, in using the language of commitments, we emphasize opportunities for MMLA research to align with established qualitative research methodologies and important concerns from critical studies.


1977 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. R. Hyland ◽  
M. P. Schwarz

Over the past ten years, there has been considerable interest in the infrared continua of quasars, however few published colours exist in the literature. The only major compilation of infrared data out to 2.2 μ is that of Oke et al. (1970). The intrinsic faintness of the sources prevented the acquisition of significant high quality data. This situation is not expected to remain static for very long. The recent introduction of new high sensitivity InSb detectors has made it possible for a large number of sources to be measured, and published data is expected to increase significantly over the next few years.


Electricity is critical to enabling India’s economic growth and providing a better future for its citizens. In spite of several decades of reform, the Indian electricity sector is unable to provide high-quality and affordable electricity for all, and grapples with the challenge of poor financial and operational performance. To understand why, Mapping Power provides the most comprehensive analysis of the political economy of electricity in India’s states. With chapters on fifteen states by scholars of state politics and electricity, this volume maps the political and economic forces that constrain and shape decisions in electricity distribute on. Contrary to conventional wisdom, it concludes that attempts to depoliticize the sector are misplaced and could worsen outcomes. Instead, it suggests that a historically grounded political economy analysis helps understand the past and devise reforms to simultaneously improve sectoral outcomes and generate political rewards. These arguments have implications for the challenges facing India’s electricity future, including providing electricity to all, implementing government reform schemes, and successfully managing the rise of renewable energy.


Entropy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 626
Author(s):  
Ramya Gupta ◽  
Abhishek Prasad ◽  
Suresh Babu ◽  
Gitanjali Yadav

A global event such as the COVID-19 crisis presents new, often unexpected responses that are fascinating to investigate from both scientific and social standpoints. Despite several documented similarities, the coronavirus pandemic is clearly distinct from the 1918 flu pandemic in terms of our exponentially increased, almost instantaneous ability to access/share information, offering an unprecedented opportunity to visualise rippling effects of global events across space and time. Personal devices provide “big data” on people’s movement, the environment and economic trends, while access to the unprecedented flurry in scientific publications and media posts provides a measure of the response of the educated world to the crisis. Most bibliometric (co-authorship, co-citation, or bibliographic coupling) analyses ignore the time dimension, but COVID-19 has made it possible to perform a detailed temporal investigation into the pandemic. Here, we report a comprehensive network analysis based on more than 20,000 published documents on viral epidemics, authored by over 75,000 individuals from 140 nations in the past one year of the crisis. Unlike the 1918 flu pandemic, access to published data over the past two decades enabled a comparison of publishing trends between the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and those of the 2003 SARS epidemic to study changes in thematic foci and societal pressures dictating research over the course of a crisis.


2021 ◽  
pp. 019459982098713
Author(s):  
Jennifer A. Silver ◽  
Marco Mascarella ◽  
George Tali ◽  
Rickul Varshney ◽  
Marc A. Tewfik ◽  
...  

Objective The purpose of this study was to evaluate the quality of evidence of rhinology and rhinologic skull base surgery (RSBS) research and its evolution over the past decade. Study Design Review article. Setting We reviewed articles from 2007 to 2019 in 4 leading peer-reviewed otolaryngology journals and 3 rhinology-specific journals. Methods The articles were reviewed and levels of evidence were assigned using the Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine 2011 guidelines. High quality was defined as level of evidence 1 or 2. Results In total, 1835 articles were reviewed in this study spanning a 13-year period. Overall, the absolute number of RSBS publications increased significantly 22.6% per year, from 108 articles in 2007 to 481 in 2019 ( P < .001; 95% CI, 7.9-37.2). In 2007, only 13 articles, or 15%, were high quality, and this grew to 146 articles, or 39%, in 2019. A 14.0% per year exponential increase in the number of high-quality publications was found to be statistically significant ( P < .001; 95% CI, 7.2, 20.7). Overall, high-quality publications represented just 25.8% of RSBS articles overall. There was no significant difference in quality between rhinology-specific journals and general otolaryngology journals (χ2 = 3.1, P = .077). Conclusion The number of overall publications and of high-quality RSBS publications has significantly increased over the past decade. However, the proportion of high-quality studies continues to represent a minority of total RSBS research.


PalZ ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolin Haug ◽  
Joachim T. Haug

AbstractWhip spiders (Amblypygi), as their name suggests, resemble spiders (Araneae) in some aspects, but differ from them by their heart-shaped (prosomal) dorsal shield, their prominent grasping pedipalps, and their subsequent elongate pair of feeler appendages. The oldest possible occurrences of whip spiders, represented by cuticle fragments, date back to the Devonian (c. 385 mya), but (almost) complete fossils are known from the Carboniferous (c. 300 mya) onwards. The fossils include specimens preserved on slabs or in nodules (Carboniferous, Cretaceous) as well as specimens preserved in amber (Cretaceous, Eocene, Miocene). We review here all fossil whip spider specimens, figure most of them as interpretative drawings or with high-quality photographs including 3D imaging (stereo images) to make the three-dimensional relief of the specimens visible. Furthermore, we amend the list by two new specimens (resulting in 37 in total). The fossil specimens as well as modern whip spiders were measured to analyse possible changes in morphology over time. In general, the shield appears to have become relatively broader and the pedipalps and walking appendages have become more elongate over geological time. The morphological details are discussed in an evolutionary framework and in comparison with results from earlier studies.


Author(s):  
Tehreem Naveed ◽  
Rehan Zahid ◽  
Riaz Ahmad Mufti ◽  
Muhammad Waqas ◽  
Muhammad Talha Hanif

All the moving components in an internal combustion engine require a lubricant that allows smooth sliding and/or rolling of interacting surfaces. Lubricant not only minimizes the friction and wear but also dissipates the heat generated due to friction and removes debris from the area of contact. Environmental concerns, decreasing mineral oil reserves and difficult disposal of nonbiodegradable conventional lubricants have urged the researchers to shift towards environmental-friendly lubricants. Number of tribological studies carried out in the past have proved that ionic liquid-based bio-lubricants are sustainable and biodegradable alternative to mineral oils. This paper presents a brief review of properties of ionic liquids and their ability to reduce friction and wear between the interacting surfaces. Tribological performance and compatibility of ionic liquids with various base-oils have been compared under boundary lubrication. The results reveal that phosphonium-based ionic liquids namely tetra-decyl tri-hexyl phosphonium bis(2,4,4-trimethylpentyl) phosphinate (P66614)i(C8)2PO2 and tri-hexyl tetra-decyl phosphonium bis(2-ethylhexyl) phosphate (P-DEHP) are more suitable for tribological applications. Since, ionic liquids can be tailored according to the application and millions of combinations are possible therefore, there is a need to summarize the published data in a more systematic and logical way.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan-Chi Yang ◽  
Ping-Chun Wu ◽  
Chia-Chun Wei ◽  
Qilan Zhong ◽  
Sheng-Zhu Ho ◽  
...  

Abstract Epitaxial growth is of significant importance over the past decades, given it has been the key process of modern technology for delivering high-quality thin films. For conventional heteroepitaxy, the selection of proper single crystal substrates not only facilitates the integration of different materials but also fulfills interface and strain engineering upon a wide spectrum of functionalities. Nevertheless, the lattice structures, regularity and crystalline orientation are determined once a specific substrate is chosen. In this work, we reveal the growth of twisted oxide lateral homostructures with multiple conjunction degree of freedom. The twisted lateral homostructures with atomically sharp interfaces can be composed of epitaxial “blocks” with different crystalline orientations, ferroic orders and phases. We further demonstrate that this approach is universal for fabricating various complex systems. Our results establish an efficient pathway towards twisted lateral homostructures, allowing epitaxial films to be arbitrarily tailored at designated positions with unbounded in-plane conjunction tunability.


CFD letters ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 13-27
Author(s):  
Mohamad Lutfi Samsudin ◽  
Hasril Hasini

Meshing of domain in CFD is an important step to ensure accuracy of the solution. In the past, hexahedral or tetrahedral mesh systems were commonly used, and both have their merits and demerits. For large and complex geometry, polyhedral is another option but its accuracy is claimed to be lacking. In this paper, the use of polyhedral mesh system by past researchers are reviewed. Evaluation on the application of polyhedral mesh system for the study of the vortex formation with a simple single pump sump model is made. Validation was made through the comparison of the results from hexahedral, tetrahedral and polyhedral mesh sizes and the experimental data from published data. The polyhedral mesh system was found to perform satisfactorily and was able to match the results from the hexahedral mesh system as well as the experimental data.


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